Jak and Daxter: Heirs of Mar

by Blackdrag-rose

Interlude: New Discoveries

Twilight moaned for a moment as she rubbed her head, as hitting her own barrier hadn't been part of the plan and this just made her think of how to better use that particular spell in the future, before she paused as she glanced around the area she had flown down towards after being ejected from the rift she and the others had been flying through earlier, though she could tell that there was no one else in her immediate area, as in her siblings, Jak, Daxter, Keira, or even Samos, meaning that for the time being she was going to be on her own for some time, which was when she determined that she needed to figure out where she was and go from there. As she discovered earlier she happened to be resting in a forest, or at least it sure looked like one, which happened to have a body of water to her right and in front of her rested a ramp that lead up to a large tree that she knew Samos would have loved to sit in front of and communicate with, even though there were some metallic structures that formed a wall to protect the tree, even if the wall was meager since it came up to her knees, while it also looked like the tree might be growing on top of a somewhat buried structure, before she glanced at the large stone wall that rested behind where she was sitting. What interested her about the stone wall was that there was a dome made of Eco energy attached to it and seemed to cover an entire city, though right now she had no idea how large the area could be due to the fact that she saw no opening that would allow her to enter the city, meaning she would have to get up and investigate the rest of the forest she was in, since it might give her an idea of how large the city was, even though the fact that the wall pretty much went from her right to her left told her it might be a large location, not that it helped her out since it would make finding an entrance that much harder. Of course it was even possible that there was no entrance to the city in this forest, something that would force her to make her way all the way around the exterior of the wall until she found one of the openings or gates, whichever seemed to be the one that everyone used, though it did make her wonder if those odd monsters were still around and if she needed to worry about them, especially the hulking one that had to be a leader or one of the stronger members of the race, something she could figure out if they still existed and charged at her, to which Twilight picked herself up and started to move from the area she had landed in, as it was time to investigate this area and see what there was to discover.

From what she could tell there happened to be an opening, like a passage between two rock cliffs or sides of a mountain, that was resting on the other side of the body of water that she had landed near, but to get over there she would have to either form a number of magical platforms or just swim over the distance, so for now she decided to focus on exploring the area that was near the tree, though as she did that, and started to walk over to the path in question, she heard a new noise which made her stop in her tracks for a moment as she waited to see what it was, as she was sure that it wasn't one of the Lurkers or the other creatures she and her siblings had seen, so this might be brand new and she was interested in seeing if her thoughts were right or not. It was in that moment that she found several of the odd metallic creatures, as in the same creatures that had flown through the rift when Jak activated the rider, jump down into the area she was in and gave her a good chance to look at them before they made their move, where she found that these ones seemed to stand near her height and seemed to resemble praying mantis, though their bodies were covered in what she assumed was a set of armor, they had red colored skin which she would see between the pieces of armor, and they had a yellow gem in the center of their heads, something she was still confused by. There were ten of them in total, based on what she could see, and each of them seemed interested in jumping around the area she was in and lashing out with their claws, even if they stayed away from her and seemed to be studying her, like they were determining if she was a threat to them or not, before they heard a roar not a few seconds later and all of them stalled as it happened, before another creature burst out of part of the upper section of this forest, near the large tree to be exact, and landed between Twilight and the group of monsters that were in front of her. The newcomer was a large beast, one that was easily the same height as Twilight, even though she was positive that it was actually close to twice her total height, who seemed to be more of a quadruped, while the others were bipedal, and each of its four legs ended in a set of four deadly looking claws, which looked like they could cut through most types of metal, it had a thick tail that looked like it could smash anything it fought into the ground with a simple swing, which had a few sharp looking spikes on it that looked like they were as long as her hands, it had a fierce looking head that had a bunch of razor sharp teeth inside it's mouth, it had scales instead of metallic plating, red colored scales to be exact, and it had a pair of large leathery wings that belonged to a creature of myth and legend.

Twilight's eyes widened for a moment as she gazed upon the dragon that was in front of her, a creature that Samos had told her and her siblings about and claimed that they were either extinct or they didn't exist in the first place, just like the Precursors he and the other Sages had been researching before they activated the artifacts that had been locked behind that large door that needed all those Power Cells, though the sound of something clicking, one of the mantis creatures, brought her back to reality as she stared at them and the dragon, wondering what in the world was going to happen next and if she needed to raise a barrier to protect herself from potential harm. One of the mantis monsters jumped into the air and raced over to where the dragon was standing, intending on cutting into it's scales and doing some damage, but it was in the following moment that the large beast raised its front claws and used one to slice the mantis in half, something that surprised Twilight since she figured they might have been on the same side, even though she spied a red gemstone in the dragon's forehead, which was followed by the other nine creatures jumping into the air as they moved to the sides to try something else, given that a frontal assault seemed impossible for them. Not a few seconds later Twilight threw herself to the side as the beast spun around and used its tail to knock several of its foes into the ground, one of them being hit by the spikes and falling to the ground in defeat, before she noticed that another one rushed over to the larger beast's side and lashed out at the dragon with its claw, something that ended up breaking its claw in half, which actually surprised her as she watched what was going on, leading to the dragon smashing the mantis into the ground with one of its back legs, before focusing on the other enemies that were still jumping around it, even though there were four down in total, as one that had been struck by the tail had collapsed and the third one had gotten up, even though it limped away from where it had landed. Of the six remaining enemies Twilight decided to move and weaved her magic through the air as she latched onto the legs of her targets, surprising the mantis creatures in the process as she hurled them at one of the rock walls so they would be out of the way, leading to the dragon lifting its claws to cut down the remaining three foes that rushed at it while their allies were locked against the wall, dropping their pieces to the ground in a matter of seconds, before the beast turned and faced the area that Twilight was standing in, even though it seemed like it was focused on the three creatures she had moved out of the way.

"Hold them still for a moment," a voice said, something that surprised Twilight for a second since it sounded like she had company and caused her to glance around the area she was standing in, believing that someone else was here and they were watching her and the dragon deal with these creatures, though that was when she noticed that the dragon seemed to be smiling, or at least that was what she assumed it was doing at the moment, before it took a deep breath and loosed a burst of flames into the space that was in front of him, where the flames raced towards the three mantis she had been holding against the wall and stopped when they were crispy, causing Twilight to withdraw her magic and release the three bodies so she could figure out what was going on, which was followed by the flames fading as the dragon huffed and took a moment to look at her, "You know, besides the hesitation you showed when these guys appeared, you do seem like you would be capable in a fight, especially with your unique power... not that it mattered in the long run, as those fools never stood a chance, given who they were up against."

"Thanks... I guess." Twilight replied, though she wasn't sure what to think about this situation, as it appeared that the odd metallic beasts that had emerged from the rift were still around and were causing trouble, there was a new city and it had an Eco Dome surrounding it, which required some serious power based on the theories Gol and Maia talked about before the Precursor Ring had been activated, or Rift Gate as the large monster had called it, and there was a dragon in front of her that seemed just as dangerous as Samos told her and her siblings, even if he believed them to be more of a myth and that none of them existed, but this would prove him wrong, if they ever saw each other again, "So, what are you exactly? I mean, you look like a dragon, but none of the stories make a mention of one looking like you, especially with that gem in the middle of your forehead..."

"Actually, I'm a Metal Head," the dragon stated, where Twilight tilted her head for a moment and the beast was enveloped by a dark mist, one that reminded her of Dark Eco and everything she had seen, with her siblings no less, during their first adventure to save the world, before she watched as the massive form shrunk down into something more reasonable, or at least that was her opinion on the matter, though not a few moments later the mist cleared and she discovered that the creature had transformed into a much smaller form, an Ottsel that seemed similar to Daxter, only this one had a red tint to its body, like the red gemstone in its forehead, which was no longer visible and might have been converted into the red pendant that was around its neck, "the name's Alvin, and I'm a Metal Head who can change his body and switch between three forms, as in the dragon form you saw, this one, and a hybrid form between the two... though something tells me you have no idea what I'm even talking about."

"Sorry, but I have no idea what these 'Metal Heads' you are talking about are, nor do I know what sort of powers they have access to, save for what you just showed me," Twilight admitted, as while she would have liked to tell the creature, Alvin as he called himself, that she knew something about his race, the truth of the matter was that she had no idea what those mantis creatures were and figured that the key to understanding them happened to be with Alvin, meaning if they stayed here and chatted she might gain an idea of what she was going up against and figure out some of their weaknesses, just in case she had to fight them again.

"I see... well, now I wish Simon and Theodore hadn't taken different routes to get here, as I'm not the best one to explain things to you," Alvin remarked, informing Twilight that there had to be two more Metal Heads like him, ones that had the power to become dragons and Ottsels, depending on the situation they were in, or at least that was Twilight's thoughts on the matter since she had no idea what the other two looked like, before he sighed and took a seat for a moment, to which he beckoned for Twilight to do the same for a time, "Listen, Simon is the smartest of the three of us, so if you want to ask all sorts of questions, and expect to get accurate answers, you should wait for him to join us... which might take a couple of days, given that I have no idea which path he took to reach Haven City, so I'll be the only one of us for some time, as odd as that sounds to me. Anyway, I'm a Metal Head, which according to my brother are, well, bio-something creatures that have metallic exoskeletons, which cover the fleshly parts of our bodies, and each of us have a gemstone, a 'Skull Gem' as the residents of Haven City call them for some odd reason, somewhere on our bodies, be it on our foreheads, chest, or the back, though most of our kind have yellow colored gems, with my brothers and I being the only ones with different colors, like how you can see mine is red, Simon's gem is blue, and Theodore's happens to be green. I'm not familiar on all of the specifics of our race, once again that's where my brother and his knowledge would come in handy, though I do knew that the Great One, sometimes known as the King of the Metal Heads, has been trying to bring down Haven City and wipe it from the face of the world, as he's searching for something and doesn't want to share what that something is with those who have a greater level of intelligence than what a normal member of the Hive has, as my brothers and I are on another level than the other Metal Heads... but, well, we decided not to stick around and figured that the ruler of Haven City would do wonders with the information we had, provided he's willing to see us."

"Well, I can't help you with that, given that I have no idea who the ruler of the city is," Twilight said, because while it looked like the Metal Heads were the enemies of Haven City, and those that happened to be guarding the city in question, it was easy for her to tell that Alvin and his brothers might be planning on bringing down their kind and saving the day, showing the residents that not every Metal Head was evil and wanted to bring about the deaths of the Humans that were near the location they lived in, even if this was mostly information she believed to be true and it could easily be false, but when she started to open her mouth, to say something else, she paused as she heard a twig snap, which caused Alvin to shift in his seat as they glanced in the direction of the great tree.

"What do we have here?" a voice asked, where they found that there was a third individual who had only just arrived, so that meant everything Alvin had told Twilight was kept between them, who happened to be a lean Human who seemed to be roughly as tall as most of the people that had been living in Sandover Village, who had been around six feet to be exact, though he was wearing a blue tunic over his chest, had some armor plating on his arms, a scarf which wrapped around his neck, a brown pair of pants, boots that seemed like a guard's or something, and a device in front of his face that seemed to be attached to something on his back, though his brown-red hair was done up in a dreadlock fashion and he had some odd tattoos on his face, "Who are you two? What happened to the Metal Heads?"

"I'm Twilight, and that's Alvin... and we have no idea what happened to this group of Metal Heads," Twilight replied, as she decided that, since neither of them really knew the man in question, it was best to conceal the truth for now and then try to gain his trust before revealing things to him, where it looked like Alvin might be sharing her opinions on the matter and remained silent as she spoke up, though it looked like this person was a guard of some kind, given that he had a pair of interesting weapons in his hands, as they seemed to be miniature versions of the gun-staff the Yellow Sage used, and had a curved knife or dagger in a holder attached to his leg, 'We kind of stumbled on this area and found them like this, so I'm afraid that we can't tell you anything about what might have happened to them, other than the fact that they might have had a disagreement with someone and tore each other apart."

"Is that so?" the man asked, where it looked like he was thinking about something that might have happened recently, due to the fact that he seemed to tilt his head just a tiny bit, almost like he hadn't done it in the first place, but Twilight kept her guard up since it was clear that he was holding onto both of his guns, as those where what those weapons had to be, even if it was odd to see them when none of the residents of the villages had them when they activated the Rift Gate, before he focused on the attire that Twilight was wearing, her Sandover attire to be exact, "Also, what are you wearing? That sort of attire, as I've been told, went out of style about three hundred years ago."

"Really? I had no idea that was the case." Twilight replied, though that piece of information was interesting, the Rift Gate had sent her roughly three hundred years into the future and dropped her outside a settlement that was surrounded by a Eco Dome and was called Haven City, which told her that the Precursors had artifacts that were capable of messing with time, and possibly space for that matter since she had no idea where in the world this city was located, something she was going to have to figure out at some point in the future, though she could also tell that the man and Alvin were looking at her, meaning they were curious about what else she might have to say, "Well, like I said, I stumbled on this place after I fell out of the sky, so there's nothing I can tell you about what might have happened to the Metal Heads, and this has been my attire for a long time, so I'm not familiar with what the residents of Haven City wear."

"It seems like it's a good thing I found you, and not the Krimzon Guard, as they would just capture you and take you two to one of the Baron's research centers... to be tested on," the man said, where Twilight assumed that when he said the word 'crimson' it was with a k and not with a c, an interesting decision based on what she knew, but based on what the man had just told her it seemed like it would be a bad thing if she had been found out by the force that guarded Haven City, as she suspected that the experiments the man had been talking about might be similar to what Gol and Maia would have done in the past, only she was imagining that it would be far more painful than anything the Dark Sages would do, before the man sighed and took a step back, "Give me a second, I need to report this to my superior."

"So, you can use some odd power and you fell from the sky... interesting." Alvin remarked, because this was interesting for him to discover, even though the latter was the part he was focused on since it explained why she had suddenly appeared inside this place and landed between where he had been resting and the area that the other Metal Heads had been in, but he suspected that Twilight was telling the truth, even though he made sure the man had gotten up and walked away from the area they were resting in before he said anything, as he was positive Twilight might have more to say and wanted to keep it between them for the time being.

"I can use magic, just like my sisters can, and yes, the latter is true, even if the Rift Gate disappeared," Twilight replied, as she decided that Alvin, despite the fact that they had only just met and neither of them really knew each other, deserved to know part of the truth that she was putting together, mostly since she knew he would have likely taken her down if they had fought each other after the Metal Heads had been taken out, due to his rather powerful body, his deadly claws, and his strong tail, as it looked like he had been built for war and he didn't like what the Great One of the Metal Heads had in store for him and his brothers, hence why they left the Hive she guessed, "You and I are in the same boat, Alvin, because we're both missing our siblings right now and we have no idea where they've gone, as you said that Simon and Theodore took different paths to get to Haven City, to divide up the group that was following you, but since neither of them have revealed themselves yet I'm going to assume that they were distracted and might have taken on another form to prevent their enemies from finding them, so it might take some time before you can meet up with them again. Now, this might be a long shot, but maybe if we travel together, and tackle whatever enemies come our way, we can find my sisters, Starlight and Cozy, and my brother Jak with his Ottsel, Daxter, while at the same time looking for your brothers, so that way we're all back together and no one's missing."

"Ottsel? Is that what this creature is called? I had no idea... but I like the plan you've come up with," Alvin remarked, which informed Twilight that he and his brothers, if Simon and Theodore really shared the same powers he had, had next to no idea what the name of the hybrid creature they could take on was, though he seemed pleased by what he had discovered by just talking to her, before he looked at her for a moment and thought about something that was bugging him, like how they would be traveling from this point forward, "So, how are we going to go about this? I'm assuming that, since your own brother has an Ottsel you would have come up with a way to do the same thing that they did before you came to Haven City and ended up in this forest."

Twilight smiled for a moment and gave Alvin a rundown on what she had seen when Jak and Daxter moved around, as in the latter sat on the former's left shoulder and usually did nothing while the former fought their enemies, where she could see that Alvin raised an eyebrow as he considered Daxter to be incredibly lazy since he would have lashed out at enemies from such a position, since they wouldn't be expecting one of their targets to lash out at them from that perch, where she took a few moments to consider how to modify her attire to do such a thing as well, though for now she didn't have such a thing and would have to figure out something in the future, which was when the man returned.

"My superior, after hearing a bit of what I've discovered, expressed an interest in seeing if you'll join our organization, the Underground, which opposes Baron Praxis," the man said, something that seemed to interest Alvin when they head it, due to the fact that he had been planning on coming to Haven City with his brothers and giving the ruler some information on how to deal with the eventual Metal Head assault or invasion, but if there was a civil war of sorts it seemed like it was best if he kept his mouth shut and waited until he knew what was going on in the city, giving him time to track down both of his brothers and figure out what in the world was going on, before the man sighed for a moment, "I'll have to change out my single seater zoomer for a larger one that can seat two people, but that won't take too long... though the drive between this forest and our hideout will give me the time to tell you about the organization and let you determine whether or not you want to join us."

Twilight was excited by the mention of the zoomer, because she and Keira had created the first generation of the vehicle and had to wonder if someone had found their plans and improved upon them over time or if someone had created new versions of the zoomer, if the Metal Heads that swarmed out of the Rift Gate tore Samos' hut to pieces and buried what all of them had left behind, to which she got up and followed after the man, Torn as he called himself, and Alvin jumped up to her left shoulder, giving him a chance to see what she had been talking about when she detailed what Jak and Daxter did during their first adventure. What she discovered as they followed after their new acquaintance was that there was a path behind the large tree, a tunnel carved through the stone that brought them to an area that appeared to be the entrance of the forest, one that had a bunch of stones and ledges lined up in a way that someone could either climb or jump up them, which lead the way to an arch that was either of Precursor make or someone replicated it, though Twilight, having studied the works of the Precursors, realized that it was the latter and had to admit that however made the area, which had a lone platform near the arch, had done a good job carving out the area, before she and Torn stepped on the platform and let it take them to whatever area rested at the end of it's path. A few moments later, after passing through what appeared to be a tunnel that was carved through a mountain, they reached a point that allowed her to stare out at a temple, as that was due to all of the structures that were resting around the area, all of Precursor make and it really made her take a moment to wonder what sort of knowledge or artifacts might be lurking in this place, even though her experience with the Rift Gate told her to be careful with anything that was found in this area, even though they didn't head to the temple and stopped at an earthen path that held a platform leading to the temple, including a small gap they needed to jump over that had one of the Warp Gates on the other side of it, to which Torn jumped over the gap and Twilight did the same, before he jumped through the device and headed to a new area, something that she replicated a few seconds later. The area the Warp Gate brought them to was a ledge of some kind that rested near the base of the massive wall, which seemed to form a massive perimeter around the entirety of Haven City, where she found a decent sized opening that seemed to have a locked door blocking their way, something that unlocked a few seconds after Torn approached it, allowing them to enter a chamber that ten people, at least, could stand in, before the door closed behind them and locked as the one in front of them started to unlock so they could enter the city.

A few moments later the door opened and Twilight found that they were allowed to enter the city, which seemed to be in an area that reminded her of the farm back in Sandover Village, due to all of the plants and vegetables that were growing out of the ground nearby and seemed to be in the middle of being watered, though stretched out in front of her was the massive city that was called Haven City, something she would have to see more of before she came to a decision if this was a good place to live or not, though she felt that the large castle that seemed to be in the middle of the city, at the top of a tower of sorts and seemed to be spinning in some sense, or at least that was what it looked like from the area that she and Alvin were standing in. Not a few moments later Torn walked down the ramp that was right in front of where the door was located, where Twilight found that there was a vehicle that looked like the A-Grav Zoomer down at the bottom of the ramp, though resting nearby was a rectangular shaped device which seemed to be another type of zoomer, one that could seat two individuals, so either one of the Underground agents had been in the area and his superior allowed them to switch their vehicles with each other, or one just so happened to be resting nearby and Torn had forgotten about it as he talked to Twilight and Alvin. Torn climbed into the vehicle and powered it up, making sure it was ready to leave, before nodding as glanced back at the door, where it didn't take Twilight long to join him, though while she was doing that she found a cloak of some kind inside the vehicle and wrapped it over her, hiding most of her unique features as Alvin rested between her and Torn, where the latter sighed as he lifted the vehicle into the air, higher than what Twilight had seen back when she and her siblings used Keira's zoomer, before leaving the area and headed into the city itself, something that was followed by Torn speaking a little about things the Underground did. From what she gathered Baron Praxis had been, well, not the best boss in the world before his ill-fated assault on the Metal Head Nest, which happened to be where the boss of the creatures rested, meaning it was the home of Alvin and his brothers, which resulted in them losing a bunch of guards and the Baron lost a part of the right side of his head, replacing it with metal, but after the assault he seemed to become much colder and more of a tyrant, especially with the rise of the Underground happening at the same time, so he lashed out at his own citizens by having the Krimzon Guard assault areas Torn's allies supposedly rested in and arrested anyone who resisted, sometimes even putting them down in the process, and that wasn't counting the slavery that was enforced upon the Lurkers, who, according to Torn, were more intelligent than they were three hundred years ago, or at least some were smarter like Humans and others were like what Twilight remembered.

While Torn talked Twilight stole a glance at Alvin, who gave her a slight movement with his head, the 'no' fashion anyway, before she focused on what was in front of them and ignored some of the red colored vehicles that were in the air, as they happened to be the vehicles of the Krimzon Guard, though the gesture was all Twilight needed to see, as it meant that her new companion wasn't interested in helping Baron Praxis and that any information he had would be handed over to one of two people, the leader of the Underground being the first while the new leader of the city would be the second, just in case the organization's leader didn't take the city's throne once they overthrew Baron Praxis... though as they listened to what Torn had to say Twilight noticed that they flew through a marketplace, by the central tower, through another half of the market, quickly navigated around an area that was full of electricity and made her want to study it, before reaching an area that seemed like the poor section, before coming to a stop at a dead end.

"So what do you say?" Torn asked, though at the same time he powered down the vehicle he had been driving and took a moment to step onto the ground that was outside what Twilight assumed was one of the hideouts for the Underground, and he even made sure that the zoomer was resting just above the ground, before he stopped by what looked like a door made out of stone, one that happened to have a symbol on it that seemed to indicate that the Underground planned on taking down the Baron and restoring peace to the city, and turned around to look at Twilight once more, where it was easy for her to determine what he was asking her.

"It seems like you need all the help you can get... so count me in," Twilight replied, as she had seen and heard a bunch of things that made her dislike the Baron, especially since it seemed like he was punishing his citizens when there were next to no members of the Underground in the areas the Krimzon Guards assaulted, and that wasn't counting the fact that the Baron had slave labor in the form of Lurkers, apparently depriving them of their basic rights, or at least she assumed they had more rights after what happened to them in the past, before she thought about something as she glanced down at her body and her attire, "I'm probably going to need some new attire, to help me blend in and not be stopped every time someone sees my Sandover clothing, and possibly spend some time seeing if I can make an illusion spell to hide my true form for a time, but once I've covered those two problems, and made sure my body fights like its supposed to, I should be ready to tackle the Baron and his Krimzon Guard."

Torn said nothing to that, as he had been thinking about whether or not Twilight was going to join them, but the thought about training would allow him to see just she was capable of and if her little critter had anything to offer the organization, which was unlikely, and he beckoned for her to follow him, as he suspected that this was going to be rather interesting and he was sure that some of his allies would think the same thing when they found out what he had discovered earlier, especially when he considered the test that he had in mind for their new recruit.

Comments

[PrismStrike]

hooo boii yeah Praxis is so screwed. Not only has Twilight already joined the underground but shes also gotten herself a sentient metal head friend (I just hope they don't start breaking out into song)